As we move toward the end of 2017, this is a great time to set yourself some new goals for 2018 and here’s some great tips to help you maximise your ability to actually achieve them! Have you ever set goals previously and given up before you achieved what you set out to achieve?

If so, it’s likely that you’ve said things to yourself like:

“I’m going to try really hard to do this”

“I’m thinking about starting….”

etc…

So my first tip is to stop trying or thinking about it and GET COMMITTED!

When you tell yourself you’re committed to success, your brain starts to look for ways to support your commitment. When you’re ‘trying’ to do something, you’re starting out with the possibility that you may not succeed and the likelihood is that you’ll be right.

My second tip is to GET CLARITY…

Sometimes we think we want to achieve a particular goal, without thinking how achieving it may impact on other areas of your life. For example, if you decide that you want to increase your income but to do this you have to work longer and harder, this may impact on your relationship and cause an issue in another area of your life.

It’s therefore important to understand WHY you want to achieve a particular goal and what the benefits will be and also to recognise what issues it may cause if you do achieve it. Then you can really way up the benefits versus the negatives, to ensure that your WHY is really what you want.

If the pain in other areas of your life is greater than the pleasure of achieving the goal, you’re unlikely to stick to it. However when your WHY is really important to you and you can see the benefits of achieving it, then your much more likely to keep your motivation going and moving you toward success.

My third tip is to CHALLENGE YOURSELF..

If you’ve previously tried to achieve a goal e.g. weightloss, and you’ve not succeeded, when you set the same goal again, you’re mind is already programmed to believe that you won’t succeed, because that’s what it learned the last time you set the goal.

It’s also tempting to aim small and reduce the goal, telling yourself: “There’s no point trying to lose a stone – I’ll never do it, so I’ll just try and lose half a stone instead…”

Challenging yourself and aiming for more rather than less, is more likely to motivate you to take the necessary daily action. A big goal can still be chunked down into achievable, short term milestones e.g. “I’ll lose 2lb per week”.

Tip 4 – Put Your Dream Team Together and avoid the Naysayers

Make sure you’re clear about who will really support you to make the changes you want to achieve. It’s human nature for us to maintain the status quo and sometimes, when people close to us are changing their life, it makes us fearful (often without us even realising it) and we can try and put the other person off their goal, with comments like: “Oh don’t bother – you don’t need to lose weight” or “Ughhh – what do you want to go running for – you’ll damage your knees”

When you know who your naysayers are going to be, you can try to avoid them or have a response planned that helps them to understand why you’re making the change and to help them reduce their insecurity.

Link with the Brilliance Within 90 Day Habit Changing Challenge Group or Brilliance Within Your Life Facebook groups, to get the boost and support from like minded people, who are also motivated to change their lives.

For more tools to help you set achievable goals, ask me for a copy of the Goal Setting Workbook, in the comments below and I’ll send you the free Brilliance Within Download.

Another wonderful post Wendy inspiring us to stay on track and helping us surge ahead into a new year. Thank you for all your motivating posts this year. Your 90 day challenge has made such a difference to my life and continues to do so with my new habit well and truly entrenched. Here’s to a brilliant 2018 for us both. xo

Thanks so much Miriam for being a wonderful friend throughout 2018. It’s been delightful getting to know you and share our journey together. I’m delighted that your new habit has made such an incredible difference to your life – I’m definitely inspired and have been taking some time to make sure I meditate much more often. Cheers to that toast Miri – Chink Chink – To an amazing 2018!! xx

So glad to hear you’ve been meditating more too Wendy, it’s so life changing. I agree, it’s been wonderful sharing this journey together and we’ve barely just begun! Here’s another toast to our friendship and a fabulous year ahead. Big hugs xo

After a rather chaotic end to the year (I will email you privately or messenger you) which through me sideways and left me thinking it foolish to try to commit, this advice comes at the most timely moment. I intend on January 2nd to commit to the 90-Day challenge and am readying for it in the next few days but doing the prep work. Your tips above are excellent, I am particularly minded not to negate my overall goal but rather to chunk it into weekly achievables. That I will have one of my daughters with me for a month of the challenge is important because she, too, needs a bit of a re-set so I intend to get her going when I have been going for a month. All ahead and very exciting and you Mary (!) you make it all achievable with your wonderful wisdom. Much love, Mary xx

How absolutely fabulous Mary!! I’m sorry about the ‘chaotic’ end to the year and from experience though, those moments of chaos can become the best moments to transform. What a wonderful idea to kick off the 90 day habit changing challenge with your daughter, so you can really spur each other along to a brilliant start! Thank you so much for filling me with the confidence and inspiration to continue my own journey with your lovely comments, which I truly appreciate. There have been times when I’ve thought I’d throw in the towel and then a beautiful comment from you has popped up at the very best moment. Much love, chin up and ‘chin chin’ – to the best year yet (glass clinking!) Much love to you and your family… Mary! Here’s also to continuing to stand on our soap box in 2018 too xxx